Violets are Blue
by sugarkid
Summary: MC wants to try something new. Jumin x MC x V
1. Chapter 1

He told her she could be greedy.

At the time, she considered how he had offered to renovate his apartment; the blue velvet dress on her wardrobe door. And so it was that she fell silent, closing her eyes and taking in the smell of his silk pillows.

He said she could be greedy…

...but he did not know how hungry she could be.

She tested the waters a little at a time: painting her fingernails the darkest shade of purple she owned and licking her lips as she referenced her misbehaviour; stroking her fingertips along the edges of his desk with a knowing smile and nothing more. He told her once she was an oasis, but as she tore at his clothes and smiled into his feverish kisses, it occurred to her that she was no such thing. She was an open flame, and he touched her only when he wanted to burn.

He was perhaps the most compliant lover she had ever had. He made such wonderful sounds when she dug her nails into the curve of his back and, on occasions that she gripped hold of the bed frame, decorated the insides of her wrists with such perfect little kisses that she examined the skin afterwards, almost sad that no visible mark remained.

But even so, there were things she had yet to ask of him. Things she considered as the pair of them dozed between the covers. She had to laugh at her own indecision; she who had insisted on a trip to the cherry farm and slipped off her underwear the moment she got out of the car. She was not shy and, while her appetite had brought lurid blushes to Jumin's face, he had never refused her.

Still, she felt more than a little bit exposed as she sat in bed with Elizabeth 3rd purring in her lap. Jumin brushed his teeth in the bathroom and Nari considered that this was the perfect time to ask him. He had been in an uncommonly good mood when he returned home from the office and spent almost all of dinner explaining the new contract they-no, he -had finalised.

"I think a celebration is in order," he had said when they rose from the table. "Rome? Paris? Take your pick and we can fly out in the morning."

And at that, she merely smirked and reached up to stroke his jawline.

"Oh," she had purred in the voice she reserved for the bedroom."I'm sure we can think of some other way to amuse ourselves."

And amused was certainly one way to put it; Nari gasping in the way she knew that he liked as he hoisted her onto the bathroom sink. With one hand, she gripped his hair and the other she smoothed her fingers over the muscles of his back, not entirely sure at times where he ended and she began.

Afterwards came a warm shower; the usual routine on occasions that they did not make it to the bed. Softer, gentler kisses followed suit as they ran shampoo through one another's hair.

"I'm proud of you," Nari had whispered as he kissed her to the forehead and leaned his head into the crook of her neck.

I have to ask him this time , she thought, glancing across at the bathroom door. It has to be today.

She took a deep breath and climbed out from the covers, leaving Elizabeth to make a nest in her absence.

"Jumin?" Nari said, knocking at the bathroom door a grand total of three times before stepping inside.

He stood there in his pyjamas, toothbrush in hand and lips covered in toothpaste; a mental image that once she had been unable to fathom, but now was part of the everyday fabric of her life. She could not help but feel a little smug at the thought of all of the employees of C&R who saw him every day, but never got the chance to know him as intimately as she did.

"Is something the matter?" He asked.

"Oh, right," she said, realising she had gotten distracted. "I was wondering."

"Paris or Rome?" He smiled.

"No, not that...something different."

He raised an eyebrow at that.

"...London?"

"No," said Nari, then, sighing, "let's start from the beginning. How would you feel about trying something new...together?"

"Oh!" Jumin leaned out towards the bedroom. "I put the catalogue in the tie section of our walk in wardrobe...I was starting to get concerned that the maid might find it."

Nari laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, mostly at the ridiculousness of the doubts that had plagued her mind. She had been so convinced that he would be repulsed by the question that she had never asked it.

"I love you," she said, kissing him on the nose. "I just-I wanted to know how you felt about a a...threesome."

* * *

Initially, he said nothing at all, washing away the toothpaste that coated his lips and proceeding to walk the length of the bedroom in silence. Elizabeth, who jumped to her feet the moment he entered the room, mewled as he walked right past her.

"If you're uncomfortable with the idea of it, I understand," Nari said, following him out of the bathroom. "I just...I thought I'd ask."

He was fiddling with the buttons at the end of his pyjama sleeves, the same thing that he did with his cufflinks when in deep thought.

"Post its," he said, finally breaking the silence. "I need post its…"

"I…" Nari glanced around the room. "Okay."

Retrospectively, she was glad there were no guards to see her dart through the apartment in a negligee.

 _I have to call Jaehee_ , she thought, switching on the light to Jumin's home office. _I need to tell her I broke Jumin...maybe she can help._

Jumin had been doing a lot of work there in preparation for that newest contract, bringing binders home from the office and revising line after line of documentation. It took all of thirty seconds for her to discern that he had yet to return them and she sat down at the desk to open one drawer and then another, pulling out a unsealed pack of post its from the last drawer she tried.

She felt almost smug as she stood up from the desk and rushed back to switch off the light...only to return moments later and grab the bottle of wine she had spotted tucked away in a bookcase.

In her absence, Jumin had wheeled out the presentations board that he had been keeping in the utility closet and positioned it at the foot of the bed. When he saw her return, he grinned and accepted the post its.

"Perfect," he said, drawing a circle in the centre of the board in dry wipe marker. "Now...that's us."

He pointed to the circle and scribbled 'JH and Nari' inside.

"Jumin," said Nari. "I...you don't have to do this. Just forget I said anything."

"Nonsense," said Jumin, putting the lid on the marker and holding it between his teeth as he picked up a biro. "This will only take a moment."

She sat down on the edge of the bed and set down the wine as he scribbled something on a post it and stuck it to the board, then again and again until the board looked like a clock face. Elizabeth, who remained unimpressed that no one was paying her any attention, used that particular moment to rub against Nari's legs and jump back up onto the bed.

Nari had to appreciate the irony that only a short while earlier, she had been feeling so incredibly smug about how Jumin's staff would not have been able to envisage such a domestic scene. But, as she watched him take the pen from his mouth and connect each label to their names, that mystery was all but gone. If she put a tie on him, anyone might have thought they were having a slumber party with the department of accounting.

"Right," said Jumin. "That's us."

"Uh huh."

"These," he gestured to all of the post its with the end of the marker. "Are all of our shared friends...and some alternatives."

She approached the board, examining each one of the post its for the first time. Jumin had written on them quickly, but she could make out his handwriting; the first one said 'Zen', the next said 'Jaehee', then 'Yoosung' and so on and so forth.

"We can remove each name from the board until we find the perfect person," said Jumin, putting down all of the pens and wrapping an arm around her waist.

"So…" Nari glanced from the board to him. "You're okay with this?"

Oh thank God, I didn't break him.

"It's what you want, isn't it?" He asked.

"Well...yes…"

"Then that's all you need to know," he said, planting a kiss on her temple.

It had taken him all of five minutes to put this together and, despite herself, Nari was impressed.

"I never thought I'd say this," she said, "but the stationery is kind of doing it for me."

"I wasn't planning on taking the board back until Thursday."

"Excellent."

* * *

That first night, she and Jumin talked for hours and eliminated most of the board.

Yoosung, Jaehee and all other C&R employees were the first to go. While Yoosung would probably be curious of such an encounter, they reasoned that he was probably saving his first time for someone special. Jaehee and other employees, for obvious reasons, could not be considered for reasons of consent. Beyond his Father, there were very few people to outrank or otherwise equal him in the company.

"My Father would be up for it," sighed Jumin as Nari giggled into his chest. "I'm certainly not."

Zen and Seven were the next to be eliminated. It would be a miracle if Zen agreed to be alone with them at all, let alone naked and enthusiastically so. As for Seven… they lingered over that one for a while before Jumin eventually put his foot down (as much as one could while curled up in bed, anyway).

"We should not give him any opening," he said, then off her expression, "he will almost certainly use the chance to come for Elizabeth."

Next to be eliminated were strangers, whether sex workers by trade or someone with a similar interest.

"We cannot guarantee that they will not recognise us," said Nari, "and we need to know that the person we choose can be trusted."

That left only one name and she climbed up onto all fours to peel it from the board.

"Do you think he would agree if we asked him?" She said, getting back under the covers. "You know him the best."

Jumin took hold of the paper and held it up to the light.

"I think he will."


	2. Chapter 2

Nari recognised the bar from a photograph she had seen on the messenger. At the time, she had only picked up on the photograph at all because of how extraordinarily drunk Jumin appeared to be on the far left. He denied any such thing, of course, and proclaimed that it was a bad angle on some days and terrible lighting on others.

Even so, she couldn't escape how uncommonly strange it was to actually be there. She had walked the entirety of the bar at least twice without so much as touching her drink, quietly gleeful that the Jumin of several years ago had walked there too, ignorant that only a few years from then he would be engaged.

"At this rate, you'll wear holes in the carpet," Jumin smirked as she returned to their booth.

They had arranged to meet V at seven o'clock that evening and he strolled in at five minutes past the hour in a woollen scarf and thick gloves. Since the success of his eye surgery, he had returned to photography in full force and spent many a night out in the cold with his camera, taking picture after picture of the sunset.

"You're going to run out of skyline if you're not careful," Jumin said once over a measure of port, to which V nudged Nari more than a little bit boisterously and responded that if that ever proved to be the case, he would buy a boat and start taking pictures of the sea.

She was reminded of the first time she had ever embraced V, back at that first RFA party. She had known only the minimum of what to expect from anyone with the exception of Jumin, who was not only late, but arrived through a back door. To say she had been nervous was putting it mildly and, even though everyone was extraordinarily kind to her, her hands shook nonetheless and she stumbled over her words.

But then there was V; V with his gentle smile and soothing words.

"I almost feel like I'm drowning," she said, to which he lifted her hands and massaged the knuckles.

"Oh, nonsense," he said. "I can't see so well...but in that dress I almost had you pegged for a mermaid, and everyone knows they can't drown."

"It's good to see you both!" He said, shaking Jumin's hand and dragging him into a hug, before pushing him aside and cradling Nari with a chaste kiss to the forehead. "It's been too long."

"You always say that," said Jumin as V flagged down a bartender. "And yet it's always me sending out the invitations. Why is that?"

"You know everyone's schedule," V shrugged.

"How's your new exhibit coming along?" She asked as she took her seat once again. "You said you were about halfway done the last time we spoke."

"Three quarters now," he said, slipping off his scarf as he sat down next to her. "2.15am."

Inspired by his brush with blindness, V's latest exhibit was called 'Before the Dawn' and demonstrated the transition from night to sunrise in a variety of locations. He had been searching for the perfect shots for months with mixed success and she was more than a little bit curious about what the final result would look like. According to V, he wanted to inspire the same mixed emotions that he had felt after his surgery.

At Jumin's insistence, he moved into one of the guest bedrooms for his recovery. She took command of his care and it was with a smirk that she placed her own gift in front of him: a bottle of brandy decorated with the sigil of a mermaid. It was difficult not to laugh out loud at her own bad joke, which she counted as the real gift.

"A fine gift," he said. "I'll treasure it."

She spent a lot of time with him in those few weeks, making soups and brandy snaps as well as chatting about RFA matters. She got to see the very first photograph he'd ever taken: a blurry shot of a six year old Jumin in somebody's attic.

"2.15am?" Jumin squinted. "What happens at 2:15am?"

"Nothing good," said V, "evidently."

"We were hoping to talk with you about…" She had planned to go in for the kill, but it was harder than she thought. "...spending more time together."

V paused from taking a sip of his drink and glanced around the table.

"An interesting choice of location, considering."

It was only six words, but Nari knew almost instantly that they were not meant for her.

V and Jumin's secret history was something she loved so dearly about them. A single phrase, a song on the radio, so many things that meant next to nothing to her conjured entire sagas for them. Until recently, she had been sure that such things had not mattered; in all of the time that V had stayed with them, their dear friendship had always been evident, but never to the point that she felt excluded.

Truthfully, those weeks were the inspiration for her wanting to attempt such a feat in the bedroom. Night after night she had perched on the couch in their apartment, sandwiched in between both men as they turned the pages of dusty photo albums.

"This must be boring for you, princess," Jumin commented once and she immediately shook her head.

She did not know exactly how to explain that when they described the story behind each photo, she practically bubbled over with warmth. The thought that she had crossed over into their inner sanctum and shared their secrets bordered on breathtaking.

"Is...there something wrong with this bar?" She asked.

Something must have happened when they visited before. A story they had not told her yet.

"Not at all," said V. "Jumin, might we speak a moment?"

Nari said nothing of the fact that one statement all but counterbalanced the other, nor did she ask to go with them as they left the table. Instead she snatched her phone from her bag with shaking hands and loaded up the set of photographs she had saved from the messenger. It seemed to take forever to find the one from years ago where Jumin, V and Rika sat seemingly half drunk in the same bar, but the moment she found it, she took a sip of her drink and examined it closely.

What was she missing? She had always laughed at Jumin's elusiveness about that photograph, but now...now she wondered if there was more to his constant dismissal of it. Enough for V to guess their motivations within a matter of minutes of sitting down at the table.

Wait

She stared down at Rika's smiling face, at V's brooding expression and Jumin looking as if he was about to sneeze. Suddenly, not only did she feel as if the truth had been in front of her the whole time, but that she had been entirely excluded from the same inner sanctum that had once brought her so much joy.

* * *

V and Jumin were gone for almost twenty minutes and when they returned Jumin announced that it was time to go.

"Go? Go where?"

Nari said nothing of the fact that V had just arrived and she had yet to learn if he had given an answer.

"Just a brief detour," said V.

Ordinarily she might have joked at his evasiveness, but at that point she doubted even she would find it funny. As it happened, the address that Jumin handed over to his driver was V's own apartment.

Why are we going there? She wondered as Driver Kim opened up the passenger side door for her. What did they talk about while they were gone?

She almost wished that she had followed the pair of them out to eavesdrop, even if she did consider such behaviour deplorable. Whatever they had talked about had left a strange atmosphere lingering over both of them and she could sense it even as she sat between them in the car. The warmth usually present as V rested an album or a novel across her lap and Jumin turned the pages had dissipated, leaving only silence.

Jumin's acceptance of her request had been smooth...immediate. What if V was reviled in ways that he had not been? What if she had destroyed everything she wanted to be a part of?

And then there was her other suspicion. She was not able to view the photograph from years before with both of them present, nor could she ask them about it with Driver Kim in earshot, but there was one question that burned on her lips. A single enquiry that could, possibly, set everything straight or complicate things further depending on the answer.

* * *

Nari remembered the first time she set foot in V's apartment, back when his doctor discharged him completely. He had thanked the pair of them for their hospitality during his recovery and invited them over for an afternoon tea once he was settled back in.

'Settled in' was a strange way to put it, though. Even though she knew it had been his permanent address for years and he had physically been living there for a number of weeks, the place gave off no hint of him. When he lived with them, it had been easy to sense his presence, whether from the warm scent of pipe smoke drifting in from the balcony, the tartan blanket he wrapped around his legs while reading and the pipe smoke and bergamot scent that seemed to permanently linger about his person.

He gave her a book of poetry that day, even though she and Jumin had both insisted that they needed no repayment.

"I insist," said V, turning to a page he had bookmarked. "Look...this one made me think of you."

Perhaps it was because she knew Jumin was so extraordinarily possessive and yet he did not seem to mind. Perhaps it was because the poem was about a mermaid swimming under a moonlit sky. She did not know the reason, but she blushed a bright pink and kept the book in her bedside drawer, reaching for that singular poem when she wanted to remember the way her skin had tingled and Jumin pulled the emergency brake in the elevator as they left to return home.

"Ju-" She was cut off when he crushed his lips against hers in a kiss that sent her knees out from under her.

Was he jealous? Sometimes it was hard to tell.

"Listen," she said, breaking away just enough so that she didn't risk bashing her head on the wall of the elevator. "About what happened...if you're uncomfortable…"

"Why would you assume such a thing?" He said, leaning over to plant a kiss on her jaw. "You are a most beautiful woman and it would be…." Nari gasped as she felt his teeth against her exposed skin "...offensive...if such elegance went unrecognised."

"Oh...okay," she had said. "So long as it's not something that bothers you."

At that, Jumin laughed.

"V can throw as much poetry as he wants your way, so long as he remembers you're the future Mrs Han."

Nari learned something quite fascinating about Jumin that day. That singular quality she had passed off as plain and simple possessiveness for well over a year actually ran a good deal more deep. In most cases, he did not relish the idea of other men touching her or receiving her affections, but the idea that she was alluring to them had something of an effect on him.

Retrospectively, she didn't know how it was she had not realised sooner. He did so love choosing the dresses she wore to meet business partners and sometimes even when she came to see him at the office. Sometimes in the afterglow of particularly good sex he would rest his head on her chest and, with a self satisfied smile, refer to her as 'Mrs Han' as if they were already married.

"Would you like me to wait here, Mr Han?" Driver Kim asked as he pulled up outside of V's place.

She realised she had spent the entire trip so caught in her own thoughts that the journey had passed her by.

"Yes," said Jumin, "we won't be long."

Won't we?

The fact that he was so certain only made her more anxious and she watched, practically frozen in place as V got out and reached for her hand.

"Come on, sweet thing, this way," he said.

* * *

In the time since her last visit, V had bought a vase and put up a photograph on the main chimney wall. Nari actually remembered him taking it at the last RFA party, leaning over one of the tables at the end of the night to perfectly capture the empty table.

"I'll get straight to business," he said, taking a seat on one of the stools at the breakfast bar behind him. "In the interests of transparency, I think that you should have all of the facts."

"Facts?"

She glanced from V to Jumin.

"What's going on?"

"Several years ago, I got an invitation to the bar we were just at," said Jumin. "From Rika."

"Rika?"

Now there was a bad omen if ever there was one and the resignation was almost definitely written across her face, for V chuckled.

"Look, I know what you're thinking…"

"If you're about to tell me there's another cult and we all need to be... virgins or something-"

"Rika and I had been discussing threesomes too."

All things considered, she would have preferred the cult. Nari had suspected something similar, but hearing it from the horse's mouth somehow only made it seem more surreal.

"I...what."

"She didn't like the idea of another woman in bed with us," said V, "so in the end we approached Jumin."

"You…" Nari turned to Jumin. " Really ?"

"They did," said Jumin.

Suddenly all she could think about was the hours they had spent sitting in front of a presentations board. Jumin could have mentioned it then, but he hadn't. Even when they had decided upon V as their third and made plans to go and meet him, he had not said anything.

"I don't understand," said Nari.

"As far as I see it," said Jumin, "there was nothing to tell."

"I think," said V, "that you guys have a lot to talk about and considering the weight of what we are discussing here, maybe you two should sleep on it."

"I think you're right," she said, sounding more upset than she felt.

No, scratch that, sounding exactly as upset as she felt.

She remained composed as she said goodbye to V, wrapping her arms around his middle and sinking into the warmth of his arms. She thought she kept up the illusion well, but clearly not, for Jumin pulled the emergency brakes almost as soon as the lift started moving.

"Listen," he said, and almost immediately her eyes blurred with tears.

"We'll talk later," she said.

He moved to cradle her in his arms, to hold her, but she shrugged off his embrace.

"No," she said, even though she wanted nothing more than to bury her face in his chest.

God, she felt like such a fool. How long had she waited to ask him? How long had she worried over his reaction? She didn't believe herself to be entitled to his every secret, but knowing they had that sort of history might have been useful earlier. She couldn't think of any reason for him to keep such a secret unless deep down he was less than enthusiastic about a reenactment and cared more for pleasing her than being true to himself.

* * *

It was the longest car journey of her life. Nari sat up front with Driver Kim, who did not question her, but was more than a little perplexed by her tear stained face.

Her first pit stop upon returning to their apartment was the bedroom, where she undressed and kicked off her heels. Earlier that evening, she had expected it would end in sex and she laughed miserably at her cheerful naivety as she saw her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

He told her once that he loved her because she saw his tangled threads; that she saw and appreciated every intricacy of who he was and her feelings never wavered. She wondered at that, knowing now of the possibility that he had shielded himself from her.

She leaned against the shower wall, only interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of tapping to the glass. She turned to the source and saw Jumin standing against the sink.

"Nari...".

"I'm fine," she said, turning away. "I'll be out in a minute."

"Nari."

She squeezed her eyes shut and leaned her head against the tiles before taking a deep breath and turning back.

"Yes, Jumin?"

"You forgot to switch on the water."

She blinked. Took in the bone dry tiles.

"We really do need to talk," he said. "Can I come in?"

She considered it for a moment and then motioned for him to come inside with a single turn of her head. Within moments, he'd undressed and stepped inside. He switched on the water and she turned to wrap her arms around his waist automatically. Their usual routine, when they had not made it as far as the bed. He reached down to cup her face and in that moment, she was tempted to stand there forever, his lips grazing her forehead as the water soaked them both.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She said. "I don't understand."

"There was nothing to tell," he said. "I said no."

"You…"

"V thinks I've been unfair to you," he said. "I think that he lets his emotions rule his head at the best of times, but this is one of the instances where we agree. You couldn't have known the significance of the bar and I'm sorry for that."

"You said no. Why? V is your best friend and Rika…"

She hesitated before acknowledging what she knew as fact. Jumin's expression was grave, though, and she wondered if perhaps she had gone a step too far.

"It," he said, visibly searching for the words, "it wasn't only Rika I loved."

* * *

It took several minutes for her head to stop spinning.

"You're upset," he said, moving to switch off the water.

"No," she said. "No not at all, I-"

Off his expression, she sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It never came up in conversation."

Jumin squeezed his hair dry and reached for the shower door, though made no further attempt to fill the silence.

"Jumin, you're not…ashamed about this… are you?"

She wanted to say that she loved him. That she would love him no matter what. In the end, however, she settled for reaching out for his hand.

"This is just another thread. It's something else I love you for," she said, linking her fingers with his. "Please don't push me away."

Ultimately, he didn't say anything. From the way he squeezed her hand, however, he didn't have to.


	3. Chapter 3

For the second time in only a short number of weeks, they had spent the evening talking. At first Nari asked only simple questions and only intermittently as she blow dried her hair; the sorts of questions to which a yes or a no would suffice if he did not feel like answering.

"Does V know?"

Retrospectively, she already had some idea. She remembered chatting to Yoosung on the phone one evening that Jumin was late from work, leaving her and V to dine alone together. Yoosung had called halfway through the meal, with news of Rika and her new address in Alaska.

"I've heard that the auroras are lovely at this time of year," V had said.

"Do you think you'll visit her?"

Of course, the moment she asked the question, she wished that she hadn't. He rested his fork and rose from the table to help himself to a glass of icewater.

"Have you ever...loved someone so completely, so ill advisedly...that you became someone else?"

"I'm sorry," she had said, "I-I shouldn't have."

But his smile was gentle as he returned to the table. For a moment she was not even afraid that she had offended him.

"Have you?" He asked, sitting back down in place.

"No."

"When I first met Rika, she was drowning," he said. "And I allowed myself to be bent and broken a piece at a time just to save her. I convinced myself that she was my burden because I was the only one who noticed. I told her so many lies just keep her head above the water. I said she was my only love. My first love. That our souls had arrived on this earth to be together and view the same sky."

"V…"

He shook his head.

"Now she's gone and I can say, without a shred of doubt in my mind, that it's for the better. By the time you came along, we were drowning each other."

As expected, Jumin's expression barely flickered at the question.

"Yes."

"Did Rika?"

"I don't think so."

No. No, of course she hadn't. She hadn't even considered Jumin as an option until declining the prospect of another woman. In a way, however, that singular fact was a good deal more revealing than it appeared to be on the surface. If Rika was jealous enough to feel uncomfortable of the idea of V showing another woman affection with her present, Nari knew there was no way that she would have seriously considered someone for whom V held a genuine affection.

Rika genuinely must have believed that V and Jumin were friends as opposed to something a good deal more intricate. In Jumin's place, she was sure she would have refused too; if they felt as deeply about one another as she was sure that they did, a threesome where two out of three could not be honest about their feelings would have ultimately been unfair to everyone.

She frowned then.

"Does your Father?"

To which he appeared visibly alarmed and she made a point not to mention it again.

Later, he opened the wine she had smuggled from his office on that first night and explained the answers to some questions she would not have thought to ask. How for the longest time he had laughed at the thought of himself craving the attentions of women, all while never feeling quite the same about men. By the age of nineteen, he considered himself entirely straight, all while mostly disinterested by women. He spent years explaining away his depth of feeling for V as a kind of brotherhood and any fascination he had for men as natural admiration. He wanted to be them and that was all.

"This changes nothing about how I feel for you," he said. "I just...I didn't question the dimensions of how I felt about men and women until I met Rika…and I didn't understand love-not really-until I met you."

"Even if it did," said Nari, "I wouldn't hate you."

* * *

They shared pancakes the next day, just as they had on their first morning together. Jumin took her hand in his and turned her engagement ring with the flat of his thumb, a habit he picked up almost immediately after placing the ring on her finger. She sometimes joked that if ever she were to lose it, he would know before she did and he had yet to disagree with her.

"I received word from V this morning," he said. "He'd like to invite us over for drinks when we're available."

Suddenly all she could think of was that it had been her idea to indulge in a threesome and yet now that the pieces were finally coming together, she was more than a little bit nervous. She felt like a virgin again, naked and blushing and ignorant of everything.

Oh, how she hoped that it would pass. The last thing she wanted was to make an ass of herself during what should have been one of her finest moments.

* * *

And so began the second longest car journey of her life

She had chosen her underwear carefully; her outfit down to the last detail. Every inch of her that evening was deliberate, from the sound her heels made on the tarmac to the shade of gloss she applied to her lips. She had even considered the way her hands would look intertwined with his and painted her nails accordingly.

"Mrs Han," said Jumin, breaking the silence that had enveloped them both. "You look exquisite tonight."

Of course, they weren't married and she was not yet Mrs Han, but the compliment brought a smirk to her face and she shifted in her seat, suddenly very conscious of how close his hands were to the inside of her thighs. It was an exquisite torture; like holding her breath and waiting for permission to exhale. As Jumin turned the engagement ring around on her finger in his usual manner, all that Nari could concentrate on was her sudden, insatiable need to have his hand up her skirt, paying the same attentions elsewhere.

Perhaps he knew. It must have been difficult to miss the way she kept crossing and recrossing her legs.

Once, she had called him from bed and held the phone close enough to her lips that he would hear her breathing. It was close to the party and she mostly intended it as a joke, but he had blown down the receiver by way of response and she swore, even though he was in a different room, she felt the heat in the pit of her stomach. And in that moment, she almost hated him, because no longer was it the simple lust that had dogged her every step since she arrived in his apartment. Now she needed him inside of her and knew that chances were slim.

She had almost wept when he appeared in the doorway and told her to lie still. She wanted nothing more than to wrap her legs around his middle and do unspeakable things with him, so when he climbed onto the bed and hovered over her, her mind went blank but for the growing ache inside of her. She wanted him, she wanted him, she wanted him inside her right there and then and having to lie still when he was close enough to touch was enough to drive her insane.

In the end, he had done nothing more than kiss her to the forehead.

"Good things come to girls who wait."

She was sure she would never forget the whimper she made; the small smirk that he gave her as he closed the door. It was hardly a stretch of the imagination to suggest that he remembered too; that he sensed her discomfort and meant to be cruel.

They rode the elevator in silence, neither making eye contact with the other.

"Nervous?" Said Jumin, as they reached the fourth floor.

"Nah," she said. "You?"

"A little," he said. "But then… you don't know how you look in that dress."

They arrived at V's floor shortly afterwards and Nari chuckled as she stepped outside.

"Yeah I do."

* * *

V had yet to make any further progress on his exhibit.

"2:15," he said, reaching for a bottle opener. "It's a curse."

"Does it have to be 2:15?" She asked, watching as he filled the closest glass. "It can't be 2.20 or 3?"

Jumin had chosen the wine specifically for the occasion. When she examined the bottle, he had told her that it was V's favourite, yet he was the last to take a sip.

"I wish it could," he said, swirling the glass before lifting it to his lips. "It would certainly make things a lot less complicated."

She was tempted to ask why, but took the hand he offered instead and followed him to the couch.

"I could never be an artist," said Jumin.

"I know."

"You didn't even wait for me to say why!"

"I don't have to," V smirked. "I've seen you paint."

Nari raised an eyebrow at that revelation.

"You used to paint, Jumin? You never told me that!"

"That," said V, as he placed his wineglass on the nearest coffee table, "is because he took lessons a very long time ago in an attempt to get closer to my sister-"

Jumin had taken a mouthful of wine, but he shook his head at that.

"Oh, no? Perhaps I'm remembering it wrong…"

"You are remembering it wrong. Your sister took up painting to get closer to me."

"Then why _did_ you have lessons, then?"

"I have the funniest feeling it's because my father disapproved."

"Ah," V nodded. "Perhaps you do have the soul of an artist after all. But in any case," he ran his fingers along her back, smoothing them over spots that her dress had left uncovered, "it's a good story. You'll be telling it for years to come!"

Jumin sighed from his spot on the couch.

"I knew you were going to say that."

"Picture this," said V, stroking her exposed skin as anyone else might fine silks. "My parents used to have parties on the first Tuesday of every month and they would invite everyone they knew in the neighbourhood for wine and conversation."

"That sounds just like…"

"The RFA parties?" V laughed. "I ought to have known that you, of all people, would make the connection."

"They were always such ghastly things," said Jumin. "Ah, no offense-"

"None taken. Anyway, one particular month, Jumin's father came over to mine and asked how Jumin's painting classes were coming along and my Father was ecstatic," V could barely hold back his laughter. "He had him by the shoulders-Chief Han!-and he told him…"

V cleared his throat, presumably to do an impression of his own father.

"Your son is so terrible that I swear he's a genius."

Nari burst out laughing. Jumin groaned at the memory.

"But the best part was that Chief Han… you've met him, you know what he's like….no offense-"

"Some taken."

"He said that he had always advised his son against taking half measures."

She rested her own wine glass on the coffee table and leaned back against the couch to catch her breath. With her back no longer as easily accessible, V ran his fingers through her hair instead and almost immediately she began to wonder how she had given so little attention to his fingers before. They were exquisite, now she considered them; long and narrow and almost certainly skilful. She had a sudden urge to see him play the piano… and other far less innocent things.

"I can't believe you told my future wife that story," said Jumin. "I'm going to be hearing it for the rest of my life."

"Oh," said Nari, "but you must know all sorts of embarrassing stories about V, surely?"

Jumin considered it. So did V. For a moment he actually stopped touching her. Finally, Jumin smiled, put aside his wine and motioned for her to lean in closer.

"I've got one," he said. "Come here, I'll whisper it to you."

She leaned into him and he placed a hand on her cheek as if to whisper a secret in her ear. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that V watched them closely and she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy it. She wondered what secret he meant to tell her. Perhaps he knew the sorts of things that V liked and felt inclined to tell her.

She gasped when Jumin whispered only 'sit still' and grazed his teeth across her earlobe. To hide the truth from V, however, she pretended to be shocked at some imaginary revelation.

"Good gracious," she said, the tip of Jumin's tongue teasing her outer ear. "Tell me more."

If V was concerned, he didn't show it.

"Yes, do," he said. "I'm all ears."

Nari felt herself flush a bright red. Did he know? How did he know?

"I… V, I can't believe what I'm hearing!"

Well that much was true, at least.

Jumin kissed her jawline and lowered the hand he had cupped against her cheek so that it rested on her thigh. Her toes curled and she turned to V.

"I'll tell you," she said, Jumin's warm hand on her thigh only drawing her attentions to the ache inside of her.

V leaned closer, following her come hither motion. She planned to whisper something deeply dirty in his ear, but once she realised he was so close that she could smell the wine on his breath she felt a good deal more bold. She had thought his fingers were wonderful, but his lips were perfect too and she wanted to kiss them. She slipped a finger under his chin and ran the flat of her thumb across his bottom lip so softly that it barely made contact, before leaning in and indulging herself completely.

She had wondered, on more than one occasion, what it might be like to kiss V. She had wondered about it long before she had expressed a serious interest in Jumin, back when she sat alone in Rika's apartment. She knew very little about the organisation, but she did know that V and Rika had been lovers and it was only natural that they kissed in her imagination.

Perhaps it was because she had mentally bestowed his kisses upon another woman that they seemed so inviting. His kisses were gentle and tasted so pleasantly of wine, but her heart raced as if she had stolen them and she found herself moaning, considering that duplicity had never felt so sweet.

"Do that again," he whispered in a low, authoritarian voice she would never have associated with him.

"You first," she said and he kissed her again, more forcefully this time.

She was almost composed until Jumin kissed her neck; those unrelenting kisses of his that left enormous bruises afterwards. He knew exactly which spots would make her squeal if he sucked them and the fact that he didn't was almost a crime. What's more, he used the hand that had been on her thigh to part her legs and teased it along the seam of her underwear; so close to where she actually wanted his fingers that she found herself reaching down to bridge the gap.

"I think," she said, pulling away from V's lips and gasping as he kissed her neck too. "I think that if we carry on like this… we won't make it to the bedroom."

* * *

Somehow she had not taken into consideration how complicated it would be getting from the couch to the bed. It took them a good twenty minutes of stumbling and tripping over one another's legs to reach the bedroom door; twenty minutes of abandoning clothes and crashing into furniture in a vain attempt to lock lips.

Her dress hit the ground exactly as she had planned it. A whisper of fabric against V's kitchen floor as she stepped right out of her high heels and enjoyed that sweet moment of standing before them in nothing but the underwear that she had so carefully picked out.

V's bedroom was cluttered where the rest of his apartment lay empty and only after his bed covers graced her skin did Nari realise she had never been permitted inside before. Not because V was especially stern and would refuse her if she asked, but because not once had it ever occurred to her to ask. Her heart fluttered as she sat up into a cross-legged position and examined all of the different cameras and tripods that lined the walls; the towers of books that surrounded his desk for lack of space on the shelves.

Jumin and V embraced one another in the doorway, halfway through helping one another out of their pants, rough hands tangled in soft hair. Retrospectively, she supposed she ought to have been jealous, for their chests rose and fell in a steady unison and when they finally broke free, it was to exchange gentle smiles. She knew that moment did not belong to her, though, and could not bring herself to mind.

They sat on the bed beside her, breathless from undressing. V already had bruises forming on his hip from a collision with one of the stools at the breakfast bar. The same one, now that she thought about it, that he had climbed onto to say they should talk.

"Made it," said Jumin, weakly bumping his fist in victory.

She rolled over onto her hands and knees and sat between the pair, taking the opportunity to admire the subtle variations in their bodies. When clothed, they had an almost identical silhouette, but now that they were down to their underwear it was a whole other story. V was slighter and paler than Jumin, without becoming sickly in appearance. His body had a dusting of freckles, where Jumin had only the occasional mole.

The first time they ever made love, Nari had kissed each one, which amused him greatly.

"What are you doing?" He had asked, stroking his fingers through her hair.

"Treasure map!" She replied, before kissing his chest. "I want to know where they lead."

"Fair enough, b-"

He broke off the moment her lips skimmed his belly button.

She realised she would not be able to do the same to V; his skin was too elaborate. In places it almost reminded her of a faded map of constellations.

"On a scale of one to ten," he said, as if reading her thoughts, "how annoyed would you guys be if I said the condoms were in the kitchen?"

Jumin groaned.

"I think the fact that I know you're joking only makes it worse."

But he got up anyway and left to pour a fresh glass of wine. V sat up and reached across to the set of drawers beside his bed. Nari leaned over, wanting to better admire him without worrying about neglecting her fiancé.

"Well hello there," he said, turning back towards the bed and finding her in a much closer proximity than she had been before. "What brings you here?"

"You," she pouted and he laughed as he slid the box of condoms across the bed.

"Me?"

He guided her onto his lap and kissed her softly, hands trailing from her knees to her waist and along her sides.

"Wait," he said, seconds after unclasping her bra.

"What is it?"

She wondered if she had acted too quickly; from her position in his lap, she could feel that he was gloriously hard and his body craved the attention, but his feelings on where they were in that moment were still something of a mystery.

"I…"

He blushed; a delicate peppering of pink across his cheeks. She was almost tempted to kiss it away, but she knew that she had never seen V blush before and the least she could do was listen.

"I...uh...I have only one request."

"Oh?"

"Tonight...and in general if you like," he said. "Please call me Jihyun."

A week or so after the RFA party, she had learned his real name, but it had always seemed wrong to refer to him by it in conversation. Clearly, she was not the only one to feel that way. Even Jumin, who had known him the longest, called him V without thinking. Still, Nari couldn't help but chuckle that of all of the requests he might have made, he chose that one.

"I think I can manage that, Jihyun ," she said.

"You think it sounds strange, don't you?"

"Little bit."

He laughed into the next kiss, tossing aside her bra before rolling on top of her in a smooth motion he had almost certainly done before. Her heart skipped a beat, even as she landed gently.

"I'll bear that in mind," he said as flesh hit flesh and she locked her legs around his middle.

His teeth scraped her bottom lip; her nails took in every contour of his back; she outright sank them in when he ground his hips into her, reaching up to take fistfuls of his hair without an ounce of finesse.

She'd been patient, she thought; she'd been good. It was only a layer of fabric that separated them and it would take only a matter of seconds to solve that particular problem.

They were breathless when she broke the kiss; both gasping into the next one. That was how Jumin found them mere moments later.

"Don't stop on my account," he said, setting the wine glasses down on V's desk. In the end, he had refilled all three.

"Come and join us, Jumin," she giggled as V clambered off her and shot her a conspiratorial glance.

"Room for one more," he said, motioning for Jumin to get on the bed as well.

V's wine glasses were all identical and the only one with any distinguishing markers was her own, which still held signs of her lipstick. Jumin picked up his own glass, however, as if it had a label on it or was painted a different colour to the others. He took a sip and regarded the scene before him: Nari flat on her back, bare breasted and red in the face from the previous excitement; neither she nor V in anything more than a pair of underwear.

Jumin took a sip of wine and savoured the taste almost as much as the aesthetic.

"Persuade me."

A challenge if ever there was one and blatantly intended as such. She glanced across at V, who winked before sitting up on his knees.

"Oh, Jumin," he said, slipping his hand into the condom box. "Don't be such a spoilsport."

"Come and play with us Jumin," said Nari, licking her lips and spreading her legs, stroking her wet fingertips along the insides of her thighs.

Ordinarily such a display would stop him in his tracks, but right then he almost looked bored, setting aside his glass and leaning against the desk.

"You'll have to do better than that," he said.

"Oh I intend to," said V, reaching up to kiss him so deeply that he had to cradle the fingers of one hand along his jaw. With his other hand, he reached across to her and passed her the condom he had pilfered from the box. Nari crawled towards Jumin, who held onto the desk to steady himself from V's kisses.

It was rather amusing to all three of them when Jumin broke the kiss and gasped from the mixed sensation of V's fingers along his jawline and Nari's lips along his stomach.

It brought her more joy than she could express the first time she learned exactly how sensitive he was there. Once, during that first stay at his apartment, she blew raspberries on his belly as a joke only to find he did not laugh at all. Instead he stared up at her, wide eyed and blushing. At first she worried she had done something wrong, especially when he speedily excused himself and did not answer her calls for at least half an hour.

She later learned the real reason. A reason that was almost painfully obvious to everyone in retrospect.

"Oh G-" He hissed, arching his back against the desk and gripping the frame for dear life as she trailed her tongue over his obliques.

"What was that?" V smiled. "I don't think I heard you."

Whether he registered the question or his present state first, she couldn't be sure. She did know that mere seconds later, he looked markedly more composed.

"Try harder," he said, in the even tone he saved for difficult meetings.

She sat up onto her knees too, guiding his lips onto hers. He melted into her touches; his body composing an entire symphony at odds with his words. Despite his appearance of cool control, he was barely holding himself together. Without the desk there, he would have fallen to the ground a long time ago.

She pecked him on the lips one last time before stroking her fingers along his chest and down his stomach to the seam of his underwear.

"May I?" she asked and he inhaled sharply before nodding.

As she looped her fingers around the seam and eased them off him, V moved further down the bed, trailing kisses along her neck and back. She froze when his lips caressed her ass, only to outright steal a glance when she felt his fingers on her hips.

He was positioned so perfectly to tear off that final, flimsy barrier between them; so close to where she needed him, and yet he did nothing but watch patiently, as if in anticipation. Nari smirked and turned back to Jumin, message read loud and clear.

By then, Jumin had abandoned his underwear and when she gripped his cock, he rolled his hips and thrust into her fingers. It was automatic and he squeezed his eyes shut as he did so, holding the desk with one hand and reaching down to tug at her hair with the other.

"Nari," he said, so softly that she could barely make out his words.

"What is it?" she asked as she let go of his dick and tore open the condom wrapper.

"Don't tease me anymore. I want...I..."

He tightened his grip on her hair as she slipped the condom into her mouth. It was some sort of fruit flavour; strawberry or grape if she had to guess and sweet against her tongue.

The first time they watched porn together, the actress had applied the condom with her mouth and it was all Jumin had talked about whenever they handled their own. He did not go so far as to say he wanted her to learn, but it was easy enough to figure out. She had spent a decent amount of time practicing on bananas without mentioning it to him and so the look on his face as she produced a perfect imitation was priceless.

V took that moment to slip off her underwear, so torturously slowly that she ground into him and received a gentle slap to the ass in response. He rolled her over onto her back to ease her underwear over her ankles and she watched, increasingly wet, as he hovered over her, stealing a kiss from her lips before heading south to bite her collar bone. She twisted slightly and raised herself up onto one arm to give herself a better angle of both men; trailing her tongue along Jumin's cock and winking up at him as she pumped with her free hand, all while turning every so often to watch V's descent.

She took him a little deeper as V parted her legs, going deeper yet as V layered tickling kisses along her thighs. In her mind's eye he already lapped at her and it was more than a little bit tempting to sit on his face.

The moment he ran his tongue over her clit, her mind fell empty of any coherent thought. She became incapable of anything other than moaning and shifting her hips back and forth in a vain attempt to direct his tongue. Anything to appease the desire deep inside of her that had grown so increasingly powerful, like a spring wound uncomfortably tight. Jumin seemed to be enjoying the show too; he kept slipping his cock from her lips deliberately and sliding his thumb across her lips instead.

In the end V didn't allow her to come. As a matter of fact, he built up her orgasm several times, only to change his pace and allow it to falter. She whimpered when he sat up and released his lips from her entirely.

"V-Jihyun," she said, her every word drenched with lust. "Please…"

A few minutes earlier, she might have had a more compelling argument than just 'please', but words were almost beyond her. She was about to come undone and could bring herself to care about nothing but the free fall. It was disconcerting how much she craved him; he who was not her lover. At the back of her mind, she wondered if she ought to have been more subtle in her want, but whenever she ran her tongue over Jumin's cock, he trembled and it was a relief to know he wasn't being subtle either.

"On your knees," said V and he didn't have to ask twice. She rolled over onto her front and watched as he reached for a fresh condom, Jumin gathering her hair and scrunching it tightly at the base of her skull. Ordinarily, it would have hurt, but she couldn't make out the boundaries anymore.

She shuddered with anticipation as he shed his underwear, suddenly losing her sense of balance. As if to torment her, he applied the condom so slowly that she was sure she might scream.

"Is this what you want?" he asked, hands secure against her hips.

"Uh huh," she moaned, turning her head, only to be swiftly yanked back by Jumin. She didn't see them share a glance, but knew that they must have, for Jumin gripped the desk and thrust forward into her mouth, right as V took his first thrust.

Those first few seconds were heaven. A slow, deep pace from V, who filled her perfectly, all while Jumin gripped hold of her hair and mimicked the pace. She made a point to run her tongue on the bottom of the shaft each time, relishing the incoherent sounds Jumin made to demonstrate his approval.

"Faster?" V suggested after she ground against him a third time.

"Please…" she whined.

"What do you think, Jumin?"

"You call this fast?"

"Ooh, so petty…"

He picked up the pace then; a pace so forceful that her toes curled and she gripped onto the bed for dear life, her knuckles white from the moments V caught that one particular bundle of nerves that she knew was going to leave her writhing in ecstasy. Every time he thrust her forward into Jumin, Jumin shook the desk behind him, leaving the bedroom a cacophony of moans, creaking bed springs and tinkling wine glasses.

She had prepared herself for every outcome and yet, even though it had been twisting and turning in the pit of her stomach, her first orgasm still took her by surprise. One moment it only threatened to overwhelm her and the next she was swimming in white noise. Jumin lifted her face so he was able to better watch it contort with pleasure, all while V cursed behind her, her walls clamping tightly around his dick and leaving them both gasping messes.

Retrospectively, she was quite jealous of Jumin. He had the best seat in the house.

"I've had the most amazing idea," said V, tentatively stroking his fingers along her waist and taking one, slow thrust that made her gasp. Only moments earlier, that pressure inside of her had gone in a blaze of glory, but one touch of his cock and she could feel it building again with a new kind of urgency.

"The last time you told me you had a brilliant idea, I had to explain a forty foot fish tank to my father," said Jumin, though he said it even as he moved from his spot by the desk and laid back across the bed.

"You liked that fish tank," laughed V. "You bought another for your apartment and it was almost exactly the same."

She crawled forward and took the chance to straddle Jumin, leaning forward to kiss V on the lips as she sank down onto Jumin's cock. V licked his lips afterwards with a bemused expression on his face.

"Cherry? Blueberry?"

"Strawberry, I think."

He licked his lips again.

"Ah, I think you're right."

"What are you two talking about?"

Jumin was always so much more impatient when he was close.

"We're trying to work out what flavour your condom is," said Nari as she smoothed her hands over his chest and sank deeper. "You don't approve?"

"You can't just…read the packaging…?"

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Nari pouted.

"I knew it was a bad idea to let you two spend more time together," he sighed, before rising into a sitting position. "Let's see…"

He leaned in for a deep kiss and thrust his hips at the same time, leaving Nari gasping at the rougher penetration.

"Hmmm," he said, breaking free and thoughtfully running his tongue over his lips. "You taste of berries. Not as refined as cherries or grapes, but berries all the same."

"You," he said, kissing V with just as much force, "taste like Nari."

"I'm glad we have your refined palate on the case, Jumin," said V, turning to rummage through his drawer. "It would have kept me up all night."

"I don't know if it's an...oh. You're joking."

"No. And I'm not sure which is worse."

V positioned himself behind Nari and kissed her to the back of the neck.

"Sweet thing, would you like me to join you?"

She didn't realise what he meant at first, but the realisation sank in with lurid blushes. She turned back towards Jumin, mostly in disbelief but also curiosity. She had always wanted it, but been too nervous to ask. The moment he nodded, she was sure she had fallen into a dream.

"I…" she turned to V, leaning into his frame. "Yes."

V smiled softly and buried his lips in her neck and shoulders as Jumin sucked at her bottom lip, his forehead inches from hers. She barely heard V's whispers to speak up if she became uncomfortable. She could think of nothing but how close she was to coming and didn't even register the coldness of the lube against her ass.

"We should probably have a safe word for something like this," said V and she smirked, for he said it as if he advised her to carry an umbrella on a cloudy day.

"I suppose we can use ours," she said, as Jumin kissed her jawline. "It's 'pause'."

The moment she said it, she knew how it would sound. When compared to other safe words she had seen and heard, 'pause' was incredibly mundane. In truth, they had created it for outside of the bedroom and out of respect for one another's boundaries after the RFA party. Jumin was uncomfortable on occasion when it came to talking about his feelings and sometimes Nari herself needed space. The word was the be-all and end all, even if they had never actually had to use it thus far.

"I like it," said V. "Use it if it becomes necessary. Use it and I'll stop right a-"

"Okay, Dad," she chuckled and he sighed into her, snaking one arm round to cup her breast.

"I know I told you to call me Jihyun, but I could get used to that."

"Don't even think about it," piped up Jumin.

"Well," she gasped as V eased his tip into her back entrance. "Now you definitely have to say it."

He eased his way in slowly, stroking his hands against Nari's waist and back. It was a strange sensation and she felt herself go quiet, taking in the sound of V whispering praise in her ear, that she was doing so well, that she was a good girl and he was almost there.

She did not need to be told, of course, when he was fully sheathed. The sensation by then was overwhelming not only for her, but also for Jumin, who groaned in delight and spat out curse words the likes of which she'd never heard from him before. Words that, up until that point, she would not have believed were in his vocabulary.

And that was to say nothing, of course, of how she felt. She supposed there were no words to properly describe how it felt to have each one of her sensitive spots hit at once at the same time. It was overwhelming and somewhat intimidating, for neither of them had moved and already it was almost an out of body experience.

They did move, of course, and she lost track of how many times she came as their pace got faster and deeper. She gripped onto both V and Jumin for dear life, digging her nails through the skin and receiving no complaints. They fumbled at her breasts, her hair and each other, growing increasingly clumsy the closer they came to climax.

They came together in the end; all three of them arching their backs and reaching out for something to hold, groaning and cursing as they rode out the euphoria.

It occurred to her, as she caught her breath safely cradled between them both, that all she had ever wanted was to be one of their secrets. She wanted to be one of the mysteries they shared and a story they told twenty years from then. And so perhaps that was why, as Jumin kissed her forehead and V leaned his head against her shoulder, her eyes blurred with tears.

The pleasure had been so intense; her emotions so overwhelming. She felt so much love for both of them and didn't quite know how else to process her complicated feelings.

It came as a comfort that there wasn't a single dry eye in the room that night.

* * *

After hours of kisses and whispers of love, leaving not a single inch of skin neglected or word left unsaid, the three of them laid down their heads for the evening.

She dozed off first, leaving V and Jumin to whisper to one another on her right and left. Every so often, she would wake a little and catch the end of a conversation about the elephant in the room.

"Where do you suppose we'll go from here?"

"I don't know. It... will be difficult for things to go back to the way they were."

"I'm not sure that I want them to."

"Oh?"

"For the longest time I've been muddled. V-Jihyun-you know this better than anyone. You knew me when I made the least sense."

"I think you were quite charming even then."

"Thank you for saying that, but...I have spent almost my entire life living a lie."

At that, Jumin laughed at his own words.

"I wonder if it is a lie if you believe it yourself," he said. "From the moment we met, I knew my path was planned out for me. I would work at my Father's company, I would enhance its reputation. I would be married before I turned thirty to a woman my Father approved of and-"

"And you would be six feet tall," said V. "I remember."

"I...how did you know?"

"It's how you introduced yourself when we first met."

"I…..In any case," Jumin sighed. "I've avoided this conversation for years, but it's not as if we have a choice in the matter anymore. Things are complicated now."

"They don't have to be."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, having the truth out on the table is hard, but being your friend and keeping this quiet is exhausting. People deserve to know when they're loved. I'm glad that you have Nari now. I imagine she tells you every day."

"If I had my way," said Jumin, "you, Nari and I would disappear to a private residence somewhere with Elizabeth 3rd. Just us...and our eight children."

"Eight?! Have you mentioned this to Nari? I imagine she has opinions."

"And all of our sons will be six feet tall and all of our daughters will have bright blue eyes…."

"...why am I the only one responsible for baby girls?"

"And I'll make pancakes every morning and no one will ever bother us!"

"That I like."

Even as they bounced names for currently nonexistent children off one another, she could never bring herself to complain. The combination of their warm bodies and hushed tones was incredibly comforting and, on the occasions that she fidgeted while half asleep, one or both of them would kiss her forehead and call her something sweet, like princess or kitten. She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the attention.

The bed was cold when she woke several hours later and she reached out into the darkness, hoping that someone would kiss her forehead or wrap their arms around her middle. No one did, however, and she sat up, scanning the room around her.

Perhaps they gone to refill the wine glasses?

No. No, the glasses remained on the desk where Jumin had left them.

On the opposite wall, the clock changed to 2:17

She could hear strange sounds coming from the kitchen. Muffled groaning and hushed voices. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that that was what had roused her from her slumber in the first place. Slowly, very slowly, she climbed out of bed. The majority of their clothes still lay strewn across the bedroom floor and Nari pulled on her underwear and someone's shirt before reaching for the door.

Perhaps it was nothing, she reasoned. Perhaps V and Jumin had gotten so caught up in their ambitious plotting that they had moved into the next room and one thing had led to another. Perhaps they would be in the cusp of something intimate when she walked in and apologise for waking her.

Deep down, though, she knew better. Jumin's voice was not laced with lust nor arousal, but concern.

When she opened the door, she almost immediately wished that she hadn't. Jumin and V sat on the couch in their underwear, V with his head in his hands and Jumin looking lost at sea. She was not close enough to see for certain, but she was sure that V was sobbing, even as Jumin stroked him on the shoulders and spoke softly.

"Please, you're not making any sense."

"I c-...I c-...I'm…"

Nari hovered in the doorway, wondering what to do. Wondering how this had happened and why. Had they pushed him too hard? Was it too soon? It had been such a long time since the events of Minteye, but given everything that had happened to him, maybe he had needed longer.

She debated announcing herself as she crossed the room to take a seat next to V, but decided against it for fear of adding further anxiety to an already emotionally charged situation. It seemed to be the right decision, for when she sat down, V barely reacted, but Jumin glanced across with an expression of helplessness. The more she thought about it, the one time she had cried- really cried- in front of Jumin, he had called V.

"Hey," she said, stroking her fingers through V's hair. "Hey, it's going to be okay."

"I'm s-sorry, N-Nari," he said, leaning his head onto her shoulder. "Y-you shouldn't have to see m-me like this."

"If you tell me about it, maybe I can help."

"N-n-no one can help me," he said. "It's...it's like I'm drowning."

"Jihyun," she said softly. "Did something happen to you at 2:15?"

He stiffened the moment she said it and she knew she was on the right track. Slowly, he nodded.

"Listen to me," she said. "Jumin and I are here now. We're here and it's going to be okay. We'll work through this together."

His hands were shaking, so she lifted them into hers.

"Remember the poem," she said. "Roses are red, violets are blue, mermaids can't drown, dear, and neither will you."

* * *

Several months later, "Before the Dawn" opened to rave reviews. Collectors flocked to see images of the city at night and the differing shades of the sunset, though ultimately, none of those became as infamous as the photograph at 2:15.

Violets are Blue sat on the cusp of the darkened exhibit and the brighter morning shots and showed only a disheveled bed; V's own disheveled bed, though barely anyone passing through the exhibit knew that. After the release of the exhibit to the public, she visited several times just to view that picture, knowing the sentiment and the context, while also having the pleasure of being one of the only people in the world that did.

Not to mention the fact that it was peaceful at the gallery. On that day in particular, it had been hours since any footsteps interrupted her contemplation.

"If you keep coming to visit like this, people are going to think you have a crush on the photographer," V said, unable to hide his happiness at seeing her.

"Ah," she said. "Just between us, I've heard he's an asshole."

Their boisterous laughter echoed against the walls and he linked his arm through hers as they walked through the rest of the exhibit.

"After everything that's happened, I can't believe we're finally here," said Nari. "I never thought we'd get the chance to see another one of your photos."

"Me neither," smiled V. "Another thing I owe to you, Mrs Han."

It was no longer a nickname. She really was married by then. She was also picking out white fur from his jumper; he was incapable of refusing Elizabeth's pleas for attention, even knowing that she only wanted to jump into his arms because he'd put on something black.

"Do you think you'll be home for dinner? I think Jumin said he'd finished the portfolio."

"Portfolio? Portfolio of what?"

"Houses."

"Of course," V planted a kiss to her forehead. "Then I'll make sure to be early."

She smiled as he spotted one of the gallery staff calling him over.

"Talk to you later?"

"Yeah!"

She reached into her bag for her phone and dialed Jumin's number, noting that he picked up on the third ring.

"Hello, princess. How has your day been?"

"Good. I've been out to the gallery."

" Again ? You're going to stroke V's ego if you keep doing that."

She knew he was joking, but he sounded sincere.

"I think that would be good for him," she said. "What is it they say? After the snows of winter thaw... Spring is around the corner?"

"What are you getting at, Nari?"

"Well…"

She cast a look behind her as she walked, taking in the wide smiles that he had not shared for well over a year after Rika; the bags under his eyes from insomnia that were finally starting to fade.

"...I think that spring is on its way."

She remembered a conversation they had had while packing for their honeymoon. Initially they had packed condoms without thinking, only to realise what they had done at the same time.

V came to live with them almost immediately after they stayed the night with him. Publicly, they explained that he was helping them with wedding planning and documenting their private life as a gift. In truth, he stayed in bed with them most nights and woke up at 2:15am every morning in a cold sweat. They never learned the reason for it, but one thing was clear. Their attentions could not be divided while he was healing and, as they packed and unpacked the same pack of condoms, the decision was made. They would think about babies once V was better in himself and showing signs of improvement, but not before.

"And when spring is here…?" said Jumin.

"Yes. I haven't changed my mind."


End file.
